I apologize for the brevity of this diary. I’m feeling iffy and getting a late start. So more thanks even than usual are due to the WoW crew for links and discussion — this week that includes elenacarlena, Tara TASW, SandraLLAP, and mettle fatigue.
Abortion
The fallout from the Dobbs decision just keeps being a major news supplier.W
The Conversation looks at four reasons why abortion laws often go against what the majority of voters want. (Don’t forget that the founding fathers were afraid of majority rule democracy and included safeguards against it.)
Kansas voters opted against overturning a state constitutional right to an abortion on Aug. 2, 2022. A few days later, Indiana lawmakers banned nearly all abortions.
Both are conservative-leaning states that supported President Donald Trump’s reelection bid by near-identical margins in 2020 - 56.1% to 41.5% in Kansas and 57% to 41% in Indiana. So what explains the different outcomes?
The answer is that in Kansas, voters decided the outcome directly. In Indiana, legislators did so. This distinction matters because for contentious issues like abortion, as well as in other high-profile instances, state legislatures do not always represent public preferences within their states.
theconversation.com/...
A Texas judge blocked the enforcement of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
On July 14, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to fight the federal guidance, claiming that it “forces hospitals and doctors to commit crimes and risk their licensure” because the guidance would require abortions in situations where Texas outlaws it. Texas law already provides an exception to its abortion ban in the case of a medical emergency. But Paxton disagreed with the feds on the definition of “medical emergency”: EMTALA requires that an abortion would be necessary if a doctor determines it would stabilize a condition that “is likely…to become emergent without stabilizing treatment,” while Texas law only allows abortions in cases where the condition is already present. In other words, Texas requires patients to be actively experiencing a serious medical emergency in order to receive an abortion, whereas federal guidance requires doctors to perform necessary care before patients are put in a life-threatening situation.
www.motherjones.com/...
In Idaho a federal judge ruled the other way.
A federal judge on Wednesday evening barred Idaho from enforcing its restrictive abortion ban in medical emergencies, granting a partial victory to the Biden administration in its first lawsuit filed after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the “trigger” law, which was set to take effect Thursday, violates a federal statute that requires Medicare-affiliated hospitals to treat patients whose life or health is at risk. The original language of the legislation bans abortions in all cases except those involving rape, incest, or when necessary to prevent the patient’s death. Winmill’s preliminary injunction means that a doctor cannot be prosecuted if they perform an abortion to safeguard the health of the pregnant person. His ruling clashed with that of a judge in Texas, who decided against the Biden administration in a late-night Tuesday order.
www.thedailybeast.com/...
And a Daily Kos petition to Google, asking that they stop enabling fake abortion clinics.
Anti-abortion trigger laws went into effect this week in Idaho, Texas, and Tennessee, 30 days after the Dobbs decision, with Oklahoma and North Dakota to follow.
For about 10.1 million women of reproductive age (15-49) in these five states, access to abortion will be impacted by these laws, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that supports abortion rights. With these laws in place, nearly one-third of US states will have restrictions or a near-total ban on abortion, according to abortion rights groups."
www.cnn.com/…
Other News
Women’s Equality in Utah: Why Utah Is Ranked as the Worst State, and What Can Be Done:
Workplace Environment Recommendations
1. Raise the minimum wage by $2.00.
2. Increase the number of women who earn over $100,000 by 3,700.
3. Add 780 women to executive positions within the state.
4. Find solutions to shift more women out of minimum wage jobs.
5. Find jobs for 686 women to reduce the unemployment rate by 0.1%.
6. Add 1,000 additional women-owned business in Utah.
7. Support female employees by creating flexile and family-friendly policies.
8. Continue efforts regarding job security metrics.
9. Focus on economic security for Utah women.
10. Reduce the disparity between men and women in poverty by 0.4%.
Interestingly, this week's report on the study in Deseret News does not mention raising the minimum wage nor shifting women out of minimum wage jobs! Classist much?
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Women’s honors from Getting1:
A statue honors a once-enslaved woman, Elizabeth Freeman , who won her freedom in court
Bessie Coleman , first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, honored by All-Black, female airline crew
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Now Christians are targeting women who wear pants
"The religious right has celebrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade, but their obsession with controlling women’s bodies knows no satisfaction.
Now a far-right preacher known for his vile rants about the LGBTQ community is calling for men to burn their wives’ pants because, he says, it’s just a form of crossdressing.
Brother Duncan Urbanek spread the love of God by using anti-gay slurs and encouraging men to destroy their spouses’ possessions. Urbanek is a member of the Stedfast Baptist Church, one of the most vicious anti-LGBTQ hate groups in the nation. Church leaders have called for the execution of gay men and publicly celebrated tragedies that killed members of the LGBTQ community.